Hearing loss is not just about volume, it’s about pitch. It’s possible you have some amount of high-frequency hearing loss if you can comprehend what the men in the room are saying but you can’t hear women and children. This is a very prevalent kind of hearing loss so you’re not alone.

Warning Signs of High-Frequency Hearing Loss

With high-frequency hearing loss, you could still be able to pick up the volume of a woman’s voice or a child’s voice, but consonant sounds that make conversations easy to understand, get muddled. Usually, consonant sounds such as t, th, ch, soft c, s, sh, f, k, and h are the most difficult to pick out. So, it may sound like a woman or child is mumbling, even though they actually aren’t. Losing the ability to differentiate these sounds makes it very hard to understand a child’s joke or your sister’s question about dinner plans. Separation from family and friends, sadness, and frustration can be the result.

Other sounds within the high-frequency hearing loss range (2000 Hz) are missed by people with this condition. This includes birds chirping, high musical notes, sirens or squeaks. Even at low volumes a man’s voice, thunder, and bass musical notes, may be relatively easy to discern.

Causes of High-Frequency Hearing Loss

As the most common type of hearing loss, high-frequency hearing loss can creep up on people as they get older, often imperceptibly in the beginning. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by other things in addition to aging such as some medical problems like cardiovascular disease, too much noise exposure, and some medications.

The tiny hair-like sensors inside the cochlea are damaged by all of these situations. It’s these tiny cells that pick up sound input and send it to the brain for processing. The high-frequency sensory cells are more susceptible to injury than the low-frequency sensory cells, which is why the higher-pitched sounds are commonly the first to be difficult to understand.

high-frequency Hearing Loss, How to Avoid it

Even though you can’t prevent your ears from aging, there are several steps you can take to prevent or at least slow the progression of high-frequency hearing loss. Some of these include:

• When extracting earwax, never utilize a swab or any other small object. Your ability to hear becomes blunted when you push old earwax against your eardrum. Gently clean out excess earwax with a rag when you’re done showering, or ask your hearing care specialist about other ear irrigation techniques for eliminating earwax without damaging your hearing.
• Ask your doctor about medications you take. high-frequency hearing loss can be triggered by at least 200 different kinds of medications. Your hearing can even be damaged by high doses of aspirin. consult your doctor to see if there are choices less likely to damage your hearing. If you can’t avoid taking a specific medication, keep in close communication with your hearing care specialist for regular hearing loss and balance testing. Treating hearing loss early can help prevent further loss.
• In loud environments, use hearing protection.A definite indication that your ears could be getting injured is if you have to yell to be heard in a loud setting. Heavy traffic, engines revving, power tools running, the loud sound systems at movie theaters or live music concerts are all examples of instances when putting in the ear-plugs is a good idea. Noise-canceling headphones are also a good option in some situations, but may not fit inside your pocket as easily as ear-plugs.
• Getting quiet things. Find the quietest model by checking the noise rating of the appliances. If it’s hard to hear your dinner companions, don’t be hesitant to ask the manager to turn the music down.
• Taking good care of your overall health. Your hearing can be injured by smoking. Your hearing can also be injured by poor health due to poor nutrition. Maintain your hearing by taking care of your general health.

high-frequency Hearing Loss Treatment

Hearing aids are currently the most effective strategy for dealing with high-frequency hearing loss. And since this is the most widespread type of hearing loss, there are various different models a person can pick from. So that they are crisper to the user, hearing aids can increase high pitched sounds. You can directly address your level and degree of hearing loss by having your hearing care professional fine-tune your hearing aid to improve your ability to hear sounds at the right level. Many hearing aids can be manipulated by your phone and include directional microphones for fine-tuning in situations such as business meetings, restaurant dinners, talking on the phone or listening to children.

Schedule a hearing test if you think you might have high-frequency hearing loss. If you want to increase your ability to hear your grandchild’s precious one-liner, odds are there are individually tailored answers for you.